Demand for action to tackle city's truancy rate

MORE than 1300 pupils are skipping school in Edinburgh every single day.

New figures released under freedom of information laws also reveal the best and worst schools in the city for truancy and "unexplained" absences.

The city's truancy rate is the third highest in Scotland and the city has historically had a problem with youngsters skipping classes. The figures today sparked calls for a new drive to tackle the problem.

The number of pupils missing from class on a daily basis amounts to around three per cent of the city's 44,666 primary and secondary schoolchildren.

One of the worst offenders is Craigroyston Community High School, where an average of one in four is missing school each day without a valid reason, amounting to 124 out of its 472 pupils.

The primary school with the highest number of days lost to truancy and unexplained absence, meanwhile, is Craigour Park, in Moredun, with more than four per cent of pupils – or just under 16 out of 359 – missing each day.

Councillor Jeremy Balfour, the Tories' education spokesman, said today: "Any form of children missing school without a good reason is very concerning, firstly because of the safety of the child and secondly because of the lack of education.

"Our view is that children shouldn't be taken out of school except on school holidays, truancy should be treated very seriously, and parents should be involved in the process if their children are missing school."

Cllr Alison Johnstone, education spokeswoman for the Greens, added: "If there are habitual non-attendees we need to be looking at the reasons why these pupils are not at school."

In primary schools, 36,190 days were lost every year through truancy and other unexplained absence, up from 31,295 days the previous year. In secondary schools 212,257 days were lost in 2006-07, which was a decrease of 12 per cent from the year before.

Tina Woolnough, chair of Parents in Partnership, believes many of the absences are down to parents taking their children off school during term time.

She said: "Parents think it's fine to take their children off for a half-day but it all adds up.

"It's down to the very expensive holidays charged by tour operators during term time."

A council spokeswoman said the figures could be misleading because of the inclusion of "unexplained absences". The term is used until an explanation for an absence has been received, for example if a pupil is ill or arrives late and misses registration.

While teachers are meant to correct the records if the absence is later authorised, it may not always happen in practice.

The spokeswoman added: "Therefore, these figures may include some absences that actually fall into the 'authorised absence' category and are not a good measure of truancy.

"Truancy is something our schools take very seriously and they all work pro-actively with pupils and parents to try and reduce levels."